But Is the Guidance Counselor Ready?

Years and years and years ago, during a typical 9th grade project, we were asked to research 2 professions we might like to one day pursue and give a detailed report.  In theory, the project was meant to help us connect the dots between what we were studying, what college we wanted to go to, and eventually how it would all pave the way to our chosen professions.  In truth, it was a fairly 'flat' project (and I'm not speaking in Friedman-esque terms here) that offered little value.  Most of us selected professions that had nothing to do with our vision out of boredom (you can ask me about my research on becoming a mortician or a toll booth operator -- ironically, I recall a lot from that research, so perhaps it did make an impact after all these years; mmm...).

I'm of 2 minds when it comes to the connection between school and later work.  One, the purpose of education is to be a fully functional adult who can make decent decisions and engage in civic processes, and this includes having a 'role' in life that affords you the ability to pay the bills and be an active member of society.   Hence, the job.  Two, education is about learning, about asking questions, about being response-able in an ever-changing world, and the 'job' is merely a fraction of the larger self one will create, and therefore not the purpose of education.

That being said, IF I were a guidance counselor helping my kiddos make tough choices about their future, I think I'd want to have some semblance of what the job trend forecasts were...and how closely that aligned with what I was recommending and what our school offered in terms of training, exposure and connections.

I'm curious if there are high school guidance counselors who are reading Fast Company, first, and second reading articles such as "Ten Hot Jobs for 2007" with an eye on seeing patterns forming.  I'd recommend reading the entire list -- agree or disagree -- to get the narrative background, but I'll short-cut it here by giving you the list.   Maybe you can drop it off at the guidance counselor's office after school.

1. Experience designers
2. Web designers
3. Security systems engineers
4. Urban planners
5. Viral marketers and media promoters
6. Talent agents
7. Buyers and purchasing agents
8. Art directors
9. News analysts, reporters, and bloggers

Now, the million dollar question lies in connecting a typical high school curriculum with a list such as this.  Play the odds and look at the underlying trends.  Does your curriculum truly set your graduates up to be at speed in career trends such as these?

And man, did you see #9? (he smiles)

Comments

[Brett]

Wait - so according to #9, we can get paid for this? And here we are, doing it for free like a bunch of suckers...

:-)

Brett

[Vivek]

Christian,

Interesting you bring this up. I have been thinking about it for a long time now and find that practioners and reserachers have found little to help students make connections between school and work.

I cant even think of many organisatons worldwide doing good work in this area.

Can you?

Regards,
vivek

[Andrew Pass]

I've previously written on another website that regardless of what somebody wants to do as a career, blogging is a great preparation. What job doesn't require critical thinking. Good bloggers demonstrate deep thought through their writing. What job doesn't require selling in one form or another? Blogging certainly requires selling, or at least marketing, if you want people to read your blog. Just look at the list of nine careers and you'll see that blogging would help somebody develop the skills for any one of them. (For example, with talent agents, bloggers have to select other blogs to place into their "Blogs I read daily," list. Speaking of this list, Christian, don't you see some talent in my work? I'm not there!! (If I knew how to draw an unhappy face here, I would do so.) Just Kidding!!

Anyhow, it's just a thought.

Andrew Pass
http://www.Pass-Ed.com/blogger.html

[Shaun]

Interesting questions. I am a guidance counselor and I do read Fast Company. I always check on the hot jobs, but given that my students are five to 8 years away from entering the world of work (we are a college prep school), the data may not stand the test of time. As well, given ours is an international school and our students will eventually settle all over the world, the fast company does not always help our kids planning outside of the USA.

We are embarking on our career unit with grade 10 students. I suspect some of teh students do similiar as you, cobble together something, but that is their choice. We give no grades for the assignment.

You can see it here:
http://search.saschina.org/hs%2Dcounseling/
Click on the grade 10 career unit (you might notice that ast company gets a link early one).

If focuses on:
Self awareness
Labour market information and trends
the idea of "follow your bliss."

We do the assignment not because we beleive most students will actually follow through to the end, but rather they discover the tools, processes and begin a conversation about what is important to them.